Flu
by ms. nick jonas
Summary: What happens when Nate gets sick with the flu, but tries to get his brothers not to tell their parents.
1. Chapter 1

**Sick as an Underdog**

"Nate, wakey wakey, we gotta show to do," Shane called across the room to his youngest brother, as he slid out from under the warm hotel room covers.

Nate erupted in a series of coughs before throwing his pillow at his older brother. "no" he wheezed out, his voice muffled by the layers of blankets that were covering his body.

A brief look of concern crossed Shane's face as he walked over to the wall and rapped on it rapidly, hoping to get Jason's attention.

It worked.

Within seconds a solid rapping came from the middle Gray' hotel door. "Shane shut up!" Nate moaned, thinking it was Shane making the noise.

Shane rolled his eyes, but quickly went to the door and opened it.

Jason stood there, still in his pajamas, toothbrush in hand and toothpaste foam leaking from his mouth.

"This better be good," Jason talked, spraying the white mess all over the floor.

Shane didn't have to answer, another cough attack hit Nate he started hacking, fighting for his breath. Jason and Shane were next to him quickly, standing next to him trying to figure out what to do.

"Mom?" Shane asked, wondering if this was serious enough to bring the 'mom factor' into it.

"Mom," Jason confirmed, resting his hand on Nate's forehead. Shane quickly turned on his heels and exited the room while Jason moved his hand comfortably through Nate's hair.

"You have great timing Nate," he said sarcastically and the younger Gray groaned.

"SHANE!" Nate yelled, ignoring Jason.

Jason took his hand away in shock as the youngest band member threw the covers off his body and ran out the door into the hallway where Shane was hurrying to their parents room. Shane turned around to look at Nate, right as Nate crashed into him, throwing both of them onto the floor.

"Nate!" Shane hissed as the younger brother grinned sheepishly, getting off of his brother. By then a confused Jason had made his way into the hall and was glancing at his brother as if his fever had made him a lunatic.

"What was that-"

"You can't tell mom," Nate interrupted looking at both his brothers with pleading eyes. Jason and Shane sent each other a quick glance before shepherding Nate back into his room and sitting him down on the bed.

"We can't tell mom that you sick?" Shane interrogated.

"Yep"

"We can't tell mom that your running a high fever" Jason asked.

"Right"

"We can't tell mom that your voice sounds like a dying frog?" Shane asked.

"Correct" Nate croaked and both the older brothers scoffed.

"No offense Nate, but one, I think your quite possibly delusional if you think mom won't recognize the dieing noises that escape your throat. And two, I think you _are _delusional for wanting to keep this from mom. You do know what she'll do if she finds out you kept this from her…right?" Shane asked, bending down to Nate's level.

"Right," Nate said simply, nodding, looking Shane straight in the eye.

Shane cocked an eyebrow, straightening back up and giving Jason a helpless look. So he stepped in.

"Why would you want to keep this from mom?" Jason asked, sitting across from Nate on the other bed.

"Because, she'll say that I shouldn't perform-"

"Which you shouldn't" Shane added.

Nick glared at Joe before continuing.

"And then we'll miss our first radio show in Austin-"

"Which could be rescheduled until our next trip here" Kevin added.

"And then I'll throw a fight, and put everyone in a bad mood, and everyone will despise _you_" Nick said, smirking at his brothers. "For causing this"

Joe paused, contemplating the situation, while Kevin quickly worked through it. "That's like blackmail…isn't it?"

Nate shrugged.

"If you want it to be," he said, grinning.

Jason sighed, running a hand through his hair and Shane rubbed his temples.

"You'll rest until we have to leave?" Jason finally asked.

"Sure" Nate replied hopefully.

"And you won't say a word until we're on stage?" Shane added and Nate nodded energetically.

"Of course"

"And when mom gets her hands on you tonight, you won't blame us for 'making you' perform?"

"Never"

Jason and Shane sighed at the exact same time before each nodding. "Fine, we leave for the studio in 2 hours, you don't leave that bed until then," Jason confirmed, before taking his toothbrush and walking into Shane and Nate's bathroom.

Nate smiled happily to himself, as a wave of ickyness washed over him. His smile dropped as he climbed into bed, his adrenaline gone, his flu taking over. He coughed himself sore and moaned to himself, knowing that he was just making his brothers more and more anxious to tell mom.

"You made a deal," he reminded the oldest two Gray' , not opening his eyes, as he drifted off into a light slumber.


	2. Chapter 2

"Nate?" Shane asked, shaking his sick brother's shoulder until he groggery lifted his head from his pillow. "You sure you don't want to stay asleep. We could just tell"

"No," Nate grumbled sitting up and shakily walking over to the sink. He splashed some water on his hot face and rubbed his sore throat.

"Can you even sing?" Jason asked walking into the room and feeling his youngest brother's forehead worriedly.

"I can try," Nate croaked as he ripped away from Jason's cool hand and walked over to his suitcase, pulling out the already planned outfit. He quickly shredded his pajamas and threw on his outfit before turning to his waiting brothers. "Let's roll" he croaked, leading the way out, ignoring his brother's worried looks.

They stepped into the elevator and waited for it to reach the lobby. "If mom asks, I'm saving my voice for the performance because I want to sound especially good in my 'home state'. She'll fall for something cheesy like that," Nate instructed and both Jason and Shane's instincts were screaming for them to deny.

Letting their little brother perform sick was one thing, but living about it to their mom's face was even worse. Non the less they agreed and soon all three boys were waiting for them to be recorded playing live in the Kiss FM station.

"Good luck boys," Mrs. Gray said, kissing each of the boys on the forehead, except for Nate who quickly ducked down to tie his shoe, right before his mom could feel his burning head. She went off to a separate room where she was told Frankie was throwing Cheerios and Mr. Gray came up to the trio.

He turned straight to Nate and layed a hand on his forehead, while Nate stood there shock. "Nate Jerry Gray." their dad muttered looking at his son with disappointment before backing away and looking at all 3 of his boys. "Believe me, we'll have a long talk about this when you boys are done performing"

He turned and walked away leaving 3, very dumbfounded boys. "How, but, I, and he" Nate stumbled confused and Kevin sighed.

"I knew we couldn't keep this a secret. I knew it," he muttered before turning to Nate.

"You better believe that your taking the blame for this," Shane said from next to Nate, before Jason dragged them both on stage. They each put on a fake, carefree smile and began suffering through their performance.

Within seconds Nate realized that performing while sick…had not been his best idea. He croaked through each note, his voice dyeing more and more on each note.

And his disability wasn't making it any easier on his brothers. Their thoughts were filled with worry, not only about their brother, but on what their mom and dad would do when they got off stage.

Through out the performance, Nate's voice completely disappeared twice and Jason dropped his pick, resulting in jerky strumming for a few seconds. For lack of better words, it was their worst performance yet. They left the stage with polite applause, but both the boys were red with embarrassment.

They walked to the lounge where their mom and dad were standing there expectancy. Nate smile sheepishly, which was interrupted by another cough fit. "Hey mommy," he croaked, brown-nosing.

She smiled sympathetically to Nate before turning to Shane and Jason. "How could you let Nate perform when he was sick! What were you thinking!" She yelled and Shane and Jason's smirks slipped off their faces.

The looked at Nate with cocked eyebrows and expecting looks. The youngest brother sighed. "Mom…I told them to let me play…" he mumbled, ruining is innocent act.

Jason and Shane smiled proudly as their mother ushered Nate over to the bus where he was immediately bombarded with thousands of different of medicines. They could vaguely hear her lecturing Nate the whole time.

Jason and Shane started walking to the bus, smiling to themselves, but their dad stopped them. "Don't think you're not getting part of the blame here," he threatened and Jason and Shane shared a weary glance.

"Your mom's going to be on a 'disinfecting spell' now. And guess who's going to be doing that?" he asked and Jason and Shane groaned.

"Us"

He patted them on the back as he lead them into the bus. Their mom had already pulled out 4 different disinfected sprays and was already scrubbing down the counters. They glanced at Nate's bunk and saw him wrapped in 4 different quilts with a thermometer hanging loosely from his mouth.

"You know, we could save time and just put Nate in a plastic bubble" Jason suggested, and Shane laughed.

"I hate you" Nate yelled from his bunk.

"No you don't" His oldest brother's responded, not missing a beat. Shane and Jason both grabbed a container of Lysol and started having spray wars, while disinfecting the bus.

Suddenly a thought struck their head and both boys dropped their bottles in horror. They both whipped their heads around to stare at the bathroom door. "We'll let Nate do the bathroom," they whispered to each other, at the exact same time.

"Now I really hate you!" they heard Nate try to yell.

"Yea, no, I think you can now" Jason replied thoughtfully and Shane nodded in agreement, before they both went back to their lysol war.


End file.
